


The Things You Learn

by Nativestar



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Case Fic, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Protective Sam, Smart Dean Winchester
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-24
Updated: 2018-07-24
Packaged: 2019-06-15 19:55:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15420420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nativestar/pseuds/Nativestar
Summary: Injury forces the Winchester boys to take some down time but the hunt is never far away when they literally stumble onto a hunt in the town they are currently staying in.





	The Things You Learn

**Author's Note:**

> Set early on, when the boys are still on the road.

It was his knee. Of all the damned things to take them out of the game, it was his _knee_. No life-threatening internal injuries, no lost limbs, no head injuries. Just a knee and some problem with cartilage.  
  
_You have to take it easy son, with time and therapy it’ll be fine but, if you’re not careful it will require surgery and there’re no promises that will fix it._  
  
At least they’d gotten the damned Black Dog that had been terrorizing the woods outside of the town. Three dead before they’d taken it out, and one of them only a kid-- just barely turned thirteen-- who shouldn’t have been messing around in the woods after dark anyway. If they’d have waited, been more prepared then yeah, Dean probably wouldn’t be looking at a week of bed rest and who knows how long of physical therapy. But the cost of waiting would have been too high.  
  
Dean had been all for moving on, looking for the next hunt, thinking he could rest in the car just fine.  
  
Sam hadn’t. In fact, Sam had enforced the bed rest with an iron fist and had even gone ape-shit on Dean when he’d walked in from a coffee run to find Dean trying to limp the few feet to the bathroom rather than use his crutches. Dean hadn’t dared try that again.  
  
Dean also hadn’t seen the car keys since the doctor delivered his prognosis either. And it wasn’t for a lack of trying. It made Dean wonder what else Sam was hiding if he was so good at it.  
  
  


~~~~~~~~~~

  
  
  
Sam slammed the door shut and Dean woke with a start.  
  
"Sam! Dammit!" The bedside clock read five thirty am.  
  
"Rise and shine, Dean."  
  
Dean growled. "Sam, I swear to God when my knee—Is that coffee?" Sam handed the steaming cup over, smiling.  
  
It was the good stuff and while Dean still glared, it had earned Sam a brief reprieve.  
  
"So, while I was getting the coffee, I overheard a conversation. A couple of parents were talking about this kid at the local high school. He got pushed down the stairs."  
  
Dean shrugged, cautiously edging to the side of the bed and carefully maneuvering his leg to the floor. He didn’t like sleeping with the leg brace on and it had only taken one instance of waking, forgetting his knee and moving too quickly, to learn his lesson.  
  
"Sounds nasty, but what does that have to do with anything?"  
  
"No one saw who pushed him."  
  
"So?"  
  
"So, I think we should look into it. Could be our kind of thing. An invisible assailant? Sounds like a spirit to me."  
  
"Sam," Dean sighed. "Kids will say the craziest stuff to get out of trouble."  
  
"I know. But, the witness was a janitor, not a kid, and he swears there was no one behind the kid. That he fell like he was pushed."  
  
"Sam if you’re that bored here, we can go. Find a real hunt somewhere else."  
  
Sam quickly dismissed the idea. "We can’t go. You still need to take it easy." He tried to focus solely on convincing Dean about their new case. "No one is taking this guy seriously. He’s old, the kids give him trouble, and they think he’s just spinning tales. But, I dunno. We’ve looked into less and since we can’t go anywhere--"  
  
"Hey, we can go. It was you who decided we had to stay put."  
  
"Dean, shut up. We’re staying. So, we might as well look into it." Sam sat back, looking smug.  
  
"Okay, fine. You’ll be doing all the legwork anyway." Dean said with a cheeky grin. "How do you want to go about doing this?"  
  
"Actually, I got an idea on that, too. Those parents, they also mentioned that the janitor has taken a leave of absence. Possibly indefinitely."  
  
"So you want to talk to him first?"  
  
"Not exactly…I was thinking of applying for his job at the school."  
  
"What?" Dean looked at Sam, thinking he was joking.  
  
"I’ll have access to virtually the whole school, Dean. I can scan using the EMF, talk to teachers, maybe some of the students."  
  
Sam had a point. It made sense, plus it meant that Dean would get at least a few hours a day without Sam breathing down his neck, making sure he took it easy.  
  
"All right, then. It’s worth a shot." Dean grinned. "You always said you wanted to go back to school, Sammy."  
  
Sam glared. "Bite me."  
  


~~~~~~~~~~

  
  
Dean wasn’t sure how Sam sweet-talked his way into it, or how many fake IDs and references he’d had to show, but he’d done it. Sam Thompson was now the new janitor at the middle school, Darlington, Illinois.  
  
And Dean had freedom.  
  
Sam had left for work and would be gone from the motel room for hours and for the first time in two weeks Dean had _freedom_. He grinned.  
  
He gripped the crutches tightly and made his way out the door before pausing. Where to go? A bar?  
  
His stomach rumbled. Right, something to eat. Something good. Something that Sammy would definitely _not_ approve of. He headed right, towards the shops and businesses, and hopefully a good café or diner.  
  
Fifteen minutes later, Dean was wondering if freedom was all it was cracked up to be. He’d forgotten how much hard work crutches were. He stopped and looked up the street, he hadn’t gone too far but the thought of walking all the way back to the motel didn’t fill him with joy.  
  
He glanced the other way and noticed what appeared to be a coffee shop sign two doors down. A few hops and a limp later he found himself outside "Carly’s Coffee". He pushed open the door. He wanted a coffee that’s all-- it had nothing to do with the dull ache in his leg or the sweat on his forehead.  
  
The place was small, but inviting and nothing like the big brand chains on every street corner. There was the warm smell of baked cakes in the air mixing with the strong scent of freshly brewed coffee.  
  
There were tables dotted around but only a couple were occupied. There were a few additional seats at the counter and one next to the big glass window-- perfect for people watching.  
  
Dean limped over to the counter.  
  
"Hi, what can get you?" A bright smile from a pretty blonde in her mid-thirties greeted Dean.  
  
"Regular coffee please, oh and uh, a piece of whatever that nice smell is."  
  
"That’ll be the pecan pie. Okay, coffee and a slice of pie...that’ll be six-fifty." She eyed his crutches as he paid. "Go find a seat, I’ll bring it over to you."  
  
"Thanks." Dean’s smile caused her to blush. He hadn’t considered how to carry a mug and plate while using crutches and despite what he’d said to Sam, he really did need the crutches.  
  
Dean took a seat by the window nearest the counter. A few minutes later she brought his coffee and pie over and he turned the charm on full. "So, I’m guessing you’re Carly?"  
  
"Sure am." She smiled. "And you are?"  
  
"Dean. I’m new to town. My brother’s got some work, up at the middle school and uh, well I’m just waiting for my leg to heal up."  
  
"What happened?"  
  
"Oh, uh, it happened on the job."  
  
"Job?" She frowned.  
  
"Yeah, I’m uh, I’m a ranger. Stopped the wild dog that was in the woods and messed up my knee along the way." Dean told her, keeping to the cover story he’d used while investigating the Black Dog.  
  
"That was you?" She practically melted with admiration. Dean grinned. Some things never changed, women would always love a hero.  
  
  


~~~~~~~~~~

  
  
Sam had barely been doing the job an hour and already he was bored. Out of his mind bored. Even a week cooped up in a motel room with a grouchy and also bored Dean was better than this.  
  
Mop the floor. Wipe the desks and blackboards. Mop some more floors.  
  
And all for a minimum wage.  
  
He had a newfound respect for cleaning staff. He had Dean’s homemade EMF detector in his pocket, but so far the thing hadn’t made a sound. He got it out and gave it an experimental hit with his hand. Dean would scoff at the idea that it was broken, or blame Sam for breaking it, but really, for all Sam knew whatever it was could be right behind him  
  
Suddenly he heard heavy steps heading his way and quickly shoved the meter back into his pocket.  
  
"Stupid idiot. Who does he thinking he is? Fucking bastard."  
  
It was a kid and he’d just noticed Sam standing there. The kid stopped, clearly wondering just how much of his rant Sam had heard, before carrying on.  
  
"Hey, kid!" Sam stopped him.  
  
"What?" He moaned, drawing the word out.  
  
"Why’re you wandering round here so late? Everyone else has gone home."  
  
"Detention."  
  
"Ah, had a few of those in my time," Sam lied.  
  
"Yeah, well, Mr. Wilson is more fond of them than most. It’s my third one this month. I’m gonna be in so much trouble when my dad finds out."  
  
The kid slouched against the wall and Sam was reminded very much of Dean when he was younger. Forever in detention and forever fed up with school.  
  
"Wish I could help. What’s your name kid?"  
  
"Jake."  
  
"I’m Sam."  
  
"You’re new," Jake stated.  
  
"First day," Sam admitted. "Hey, you wouldn’t know anything about what happened with that kid who fell down here would you?"  
  
"He’s my friend." And suddenly any rapport built up between them was gone, as Jake regarded Sam suspiciously.  
  
"I’m sorry."  
  
Jake shrugged. "He’s gonna be okay. They think he can come home from the hospital tomorrow. ‘Sides he’s not the always the nicest of guys, maybe this’ll remind him to be a bit kinder to people."  
  
"Why’d you say that?"  
  
"Never mind. I gotta go. My mom will be waiting for me."  
  
Jake pushed off from the wall and practically ran down the rest of the corridor.  
  
"Well, that was interesting," Sam said, sighing. He still had five more classrooms to clean.  
  


~~~~~~~~~~

  
  
Dean was back in the motel a whole hour before Sam returned from work. He made a note of the time, deciding to give himself an extra half hour in the lovely Carly’s company tomorrow.  
  
Sam didn’t have much to say except how much cleaning sucked and that he talked to a boy called Jake who said that the kid who fell might have had it coming in some way.  
  
"It’s still not sounding like a case, Sammy," Dean said, waiving a bit of pizza at Sam as they talked over the table while eating dinner.  
  
"I’ve got a feeling about this one, Dean."  
  
"What kind of feeling?" Dean asked suspiciously.  
  
"Not a psychic one if that’s what you’re getting at…I dunno, I just don’t think we should give up on it already.  
  
Dean just shrugged, which struck Sam as odd. He didn’t seem bothered and hadn’t complained once about being stuck inside all day. Sam wondered exactly what Dean had been up to with his afternoon.  
  
  


~~~~~~~~~~

  
  
  
It wasn’t long before Dean was the new regular at Carly’s Coffee. Sam went to work, Dean limped across the street and sat in the same table, watching people, and chatting to Carly.  
  
Dean was almost starting to look forward to his daily visits to the café. He learned she was a single mom to a twelve year-old boy. She hated sugar in her coffee, but loved anything nutty, be it in drinks or cakes. And she had a thing for Don Marshall who owned the garage at the end of the street. Okay, so she might not have told Dean that, but any fool with two eyes and half a brain could work it out. Marshall had actually sat down one afternoon with Dean and they’d talked about classic cars, for a while.  
  


~~~~~~~~~~

  
  
"I don’t get it, mom. I’m not ever gonna get it."  
  
Joshua was Carly’s son and did his homework sitting in the café after school, under his mom’s watchful eye.  
  
Dean smiled at the whine in his voice. He remembered saying that a few times himself when he was kid. Except he’d also argued that he was never going to use it so why did he have to learn it? When would knowing random historical facts help on a hunt? Okay, Sam had proved him wrong a couple of times on that, but that only further proved his point, he had Sam for random arcane knowledge.  
  
The café was fairly busy today and Joshua was only sitting a couple of seats away. Leaning slightly, Dean squinted at the work over the kid's shoulder.  
  
Electric currents.  
  
Resistance.  
  
Ohm's Law.  
  
Yeah, Dean remembered doing that. Where was it? Oh yeah, Maryland. They'd stayed there for most of the school year and there'd been the physics teacher, Mr McKay. He'd always made classes fun and while physics had always come naturally to Dean, he'd actually tried hard that year. He'd even gotten the highest grade on one exam.  
  
He glanced at the penciled scrawl that was the kid's workings. He saw instantly where the problem lay.  
  
"The "I" should be on the top, not the bottom," he pointed out.  
  
"What?" The kid frowned at him, annoyed that another adult was interfering.  
  
"The equation, it’s V equals I over R."  
  
The kid turned back to his work, still frowning, but less annoyed.  
  
"Oh." He grabbed his eraser and started furiously rubbing everything out.  
  
"Hey!" Dean grabbed his hand. "It wasn't all wrong, dude." He perched on the side of the table, taking the weight off his knee. "Look, you got it right up to here, and you can use that value you calculated there to work out the voltage, you just need to remember that voltage equals current over resistance not the other way around."  
  
"Right, okay. Thanks, mister."  
  
The kid ploughed on with his work quietly for another five minutes, then--  
  
"Hey, mister? Do you know why Ohm's Law only applies to metals?"  
  
An hour later and Dean’s coffee sat cold and abandoned as he described the electromagnetic spectrum and how he once made an electromagnetic frequency detector out of only an old Walkman.  
  
Somehow Dean didn’t think the kid was just pretending to be interested.  
  
Half an hour later, Joshua disappeared to the park with friends and Carly sat down in the vacated seat.  
  
"You know, my son has always struggled with physics."  
  
Dean shrugged. "He does all right once he gets his head around the concept."  
  
"That's not what his teacher says." She sighed.  
  
"No?"  
  
"He told me that he's on the verge of failing, doesn't seem to hold much hope of changing that."  
  
That pissed Dean off: the number of times he'd been written off as a kid, as trouble, as a failure, not worth the energy because with his record, in six months he'd be at another school and therefore another teacher's problem.  
  
"Teachers don't know everything. You'll see. He'll prove them wrong."  
  
"He's taken quite a shine to you, says you explain things clearly, better than his teacher."  
  
Oh, crap. Dean could see where this was going.  
  
"I don't suppose--"  
  
"I really oughta be going, Carly."  
  
"Oh! But--"  
  
"Really, but it's been nice chatting."  
  
"Would you mind tutoring my son?" She blurted it out as if afraid he was gonna bolt. Which with his knee? Really wasn’t something to worry about.  
  
_Damn._  
  
"I can’t pay you. But the coffee will be on the house."  
  
Free coffee? Dean had done a lot more for a lot less. What was the going rate for a tutor these days anyway?  
  
  


~~~~~~~~~~

  
  
  
They soon settled into a routine. Dean helped Joshua, after school with his physics work and in return Dean got free coffee and pie. It was only for an hour or so, and really Dean would have done it without the freebies, but he wasn’t going to complain about free pie. Soon Dean was helping Joshua out with his math too, because when it came down to it, physics really was just applied mathematics.  
  
Dean’s leg improved and soon he was down to just a cane with the promise that the leg brace would soon be gone too.  
  
Best of all? Sam was none the wiser. Dean could only imagine the ribbing he’d get if Sam knew he was tutoring a kid in something other than sarcastic come-backs and how to beat up a bully.  
  
  


~~~~~~~~~~

  
  
  
"Ugh," Sam said as he sank onto his bed.  
  
"Good day?" Dean asked with a cheeky grin.  
  
"Shaddup." With a visible effort Sam pushed himself into a seated position. "You try cleaning for a few hours, see how energetic you are."  
  
"So, did you find anything?"  
  
"No. But that doesn’t mean anything. There’re plenty of things out there that only show up at night."  
  
"But the kid didn’t get pushed down the stairs at night."  
  
"No. Look, it’s too early to say anything. I did talk to a few people though. So what did you do while I was gone?"  
  
"I…uh."  
  
"Dean, you didn’t go on bustyasianbabes.com _again_?"  
  
"Maybe."  
  
"Dean!"  
  
Dean shrugged. There wasn’t really a reason to keep it from Sam. He could easily put up with a bit of mocking. It wasn’t anything to be ashamed of, but he didn’t want all the questions. Sam had always assumed Dean hadn’t tried in school, hadn’t wanted to do anything other than learn how to hunt, Dean didn’t see the point in setting him straight. It wouldn’t change anything.  
  


~~~~~~~~~~

  
  
"Did you see it?!" The excited shout floated down the corridor.  
  
Sam only vaguely listened to the voice, he assumed it was a student as it wasn’t long since school had finished, and there were all kinds of activities that for an hour or two classes. While he was more than bored enough to take any distraction on offer, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to hear about another crush or breakup or fight.  
  
"I swear, he totally tried to drown himself. I mean Tom can swim! He’s on the team, there’s no _way_ he’d suddenly get into difficulties in the middle of the pool."  
  
"Why would he do that though?"  
  
"Someone told me he’s been talking about that other boy, the one who died? He looked up to Tom, maybe he’s feeling guilty, maybe he was his boyfriend, who cares? Anyway, I have to call Miranda, she’ll want to know about this."  
  
Sam forgot about the mop and bucket but by the time he reached the end of the corridor there was no one there, the girls had already left.  
  
_Pool. Right, where was the pool again?_  
  
Five minutes later, Sam arrived just in time to see the ambulance drive away and a small crowd of staff and students hanging around the door to the changing rooms. In fact, Sam swore one of them was Jake, the kid he’d spoken to the other day, but then someone stepped in front of him and when they moved Jake, or whoever it was, was gone.  
  
"What happened? Sam asked the guy nearest him who appeared to be one of the school’s sports coaches.  
  
"He just went under." He murmured, looking shocked. "He’s a strong swimmer but he just went under, didn’t surface. I had to drag him out myself. It was hard too - if I didn’t know better I’d have said there was something, some kinda current, dragging him down. Thank God he’s going to be okay."  
  
"Yeah," Sam muttered.  
  
"I have to go talk to the Principle." The guy walked off, heading towards a tall man in a suit standing next to several concerned teachers.  
  
Sam ducked round a group of students into the changing rooms. He flicked the EMF detector in his pocket on. It was quiet, but as he made his way through to the abandoned pool it started making a noise, reaching a peak when Sam stood at the waters edge.  
  
_Definitely something supernatural. That’ll shut Dean up at least._  
  
  


~~~~~~~~~~

  
  
  
"Dean." It was the way Joshua drew out his name that warned Dean the next question wasn’t going to be about conductivity.  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"What would you do if there was this girl and you thought that it’d maybe be nice to go see a movie with her?" Joshua’s eyes were firmly focused on his homework, like he was afraid to look up and see Dean’s reaction.  
  
"Uh, well, I’d ask her."  
  
"Just like that?"  
  
"Just like that. If she says no, then, either she’s not worth it, or you ask again until she says yes."  
  
"Oh, okay. Thanks, Dean." Joshua smiled at him and Dean decided that if sometime in the future he had kids, and he didn’t screw it up somehow, he wouldn’t have minded if his kid was a bit like Joshua.  
  


~~~~~~~~~~

  
  
The following day passed uneventfully with Sam getting no further on tracking down the identity of the spirit and Dean finding Joshua had decided to skip their tutorial. At least, uneventful until the evening, when there was a soft knock at their door. Dean had lost the cane earlier that day and with a slight limp he walked over, exchanging twin looks of ‘ _don’t ask me, I don’t know_ ’ with Sam before opening the door to reveal --  
  
"Carly?"  
  
Sam’s eyed darted back to Dean, confused.  
  
"Joshua? Is he with you?" She looked at Dean with desperate hope.  
  
"No. Why? What’s going on?"  
  
"He isn’t at the coffee shop and you were supposed to be tutoring him after school so I was hoping he was with you."  
  
"Tutoring?" Sam’s question went unanswered.  
  
Carly glanced back at the empty parking lot, as if hoping Joshua would turn up behind her with a cheeky grin and a "sorry, Mom". She ran a hand through her hair and Dean could see she was beyond worried - obviously this wasn’t something Joshua did often.  
  
"No, he didn’t show up. So I just had a coffee and came back here. I…uh, I assumed something had some up - at school. He, uh, mentioned something to me and I thought—"  
  
"Mentioned what? Dean!" Carly’s full attention was on Dean now.  
  
"He was gonna ask this girl out. I thought maybe he did, maybe she’d said yes and they were at the park or wherever the kids go these days."  
  
"I’ve called all his friends - no one has seen him since school." She sighed.  
  
"I’m sure he’ll turn up safe, Carly and –" Sam grabbed Dean’s arm.  
  
"Dean, he hasn’t been seen _since school_."  
  
"Ah, shit." Dean said as he realised what Sam was implying. "Listen, Carly. Go back home and wait, see if he turns up or calls you. My brother and I, we’re gonna go look for him. We think we might know where he is."  
  
"Let me go with you." Carly asked.  
  
"No, what if he turns up to an empty house? He’s gonna go looking for you. Stay at home." Carly bit her lip, but nodded jerkily and turned to leave.  
  
Behind Dean, Sam had already picked up the weapons bag and now held the car keys out to Dean. Any relief at finally having the keys to his baby back was lost as Dean thought about Joshua, alone and scared in the school with an angry spirit on the loose.  
  
"I hope you’re wrong about this, Sam."  
  
  


~~~~~~~~~~

  
  
Theirs was the only car in the parking lot of the school and breaking in had never been so easy. Sam had made it a point to find out the code for the school’s alarm the second day he worked there.  
  
They’d been systematically checking rooms and corridors for ten minutes when Sam brought it up.  
  
"So what were you tutoring him in?"  
  
"Physics mainly."  
  
"Mainly?"  
  
"Bit of math too, can’t do physics without a bit of math."  
  
"I didn’t know – "  
  
"Sam! Isn’t this the wrong place, wrong time?" Dean needed his head in the game, not answering questions about why he hadn’t tried for college or defending his choice of career.  
  
Sam sighed, "Fine, but don’t think--Dean!" Sam stopped suddenly and turned to face him.  
  
"What?" The cry sent a shot of adrenaline through him.  
  
"I think I might know what’s going on. The kid I spoke to a few days ago, Jake? He’s friends with the boy who fell down the stairs, I also saw him hanging around the pool when the other kid almost drowned."  
  
"So what? Maybe they’re friends?" Dean suggested trying to follow Sam’s train of thought.  
  
"Exactly! And from what I can tell at least one of them, Carl, isn’t the nicest kid around."  
  
"How’d you know that?"  
  
"I clean the toilets, Dean. There’s a _lot_ of colorful graffiti in there."  
  
"So, this spirit, was bullied? Either by them or by someone in the past. That doesn’t really help us a lot, Sam." Dean was getting impatient, all this hypothesizing wasn’t helping them find Joshua.  
  
"I think it’s that kid that died in the woods." Sam said, his voice speeding up as he continued to explain. "The girls I overheard said he looked up to Tom, he wanted to be their friend, and fit in."  
  
"You really think the kid was rejected bad enough to come back and start hurting them?" It was good theory but Dean was sceptical.  
  
"Yeah, I do." Sam was adamant. "I mean what was he doing in the woods in the first place? It was late, dark and he was on his own. Why the hell would a thirteen year old kid go into woods by himself at night?"  
  
"He was either forced or for a dare or something."  
  
"Exactly," Sam said smiling.  
  
They reached the end of the corridor and Dean paused. There was a flaw in Sam’s theory. "What about Joshua? He sure isn’t in this gang, I don’t see him hurting anyone."  
  
"I don’t know. You know as well as I do that the slightest thing can set a spirit after someone. They don’t see shades of grey."  
  
Sam sighed and tipped his head to the left, indicating they should go that way but as they turned the corner a kid flew straight into them, ramming Dean in the stomach.  
  
"Hey!" Dean shouted.  
  
The kid’s eyes were as round as saucers and he shook, clearly terrified.  
  
"I’m looking for my friend," he said softly, as his eyes darted back and forth between the two men, trying to weigh them up and decide if they were friend of foe.  
  
"Joshua? Are you looking for Joshua?" Dean asked.  
  
He nodded.  
  
"How’d you know he was missing?" Sam asked, and the kid raised his arm, showing them a notebook book. _Steve Strummer_ was written across the front and the kid, opened it to the front page.  
  
_I have Joshua, come find me._  
  
It was written again and again on every line of the page. Sam took the book out of the boy’s hands and flipped through a few more pages. It was exactly the same, filling the book up entirely.  
  
"You’re Steve?" Dean asked. The boy nodded.  
  
"Are you friends with the other kids who got hurt?"  
  
"Yeah, I know all of them. We hang out together."  
  
"Okay, we think we know who’s doing this," explained Sam.  
  
"Who?"  
  
"Daniel Blaketon." Surprisingly the kid didn’t bat an eyelid that they’d just suggested a dead boy as the kidnapper, but then, some pretty weird stuff had been happening lately. In Dean’s experience, kids tend to accept the truth about the supernatural a lot better than adults.  
  
"Oh," Steve said.  
  
"Do you know why he’d be doing this, Steve?" Dean asked.  
  
"I—uh. No. I don’t."  
  
"You sure?" Dean leaned down, looking him square in the eyes. "If you know something, you need to tell us Steve, or this won’t stop, it’ll keep right on until Joshua or you or one of your other friends is dead."  
  
"Danny wanted to join in with us," Steve blurted. "Carl didn’t want him to…said he was a wuss and we didn’t need wusses hanging around us. He wouldn’t stop hanging around though, no matter how mean Carl was. So Carl made him a deal, said that if he spent the night in the woods then he could hang around with us. If not then he’d have to leave us alone."  
  
"We never meant for him to get hurt."  
  
"All right. It’s okay, why’s he gone after Joshua, he’s not in your gang is he?" asked Dean.  
  
"No, but we’re friends and I kinda told him what happened."  
  
"So he’s gone after him because he didn’t come forward with the truth." Sam said.  
  
They heard the sound of an engine starting, coming from the bottom of the hallway. It was one of the shop rooms. They ran down, pausing outside the door long enough for Dean and Sam to draw their weapons.  
  
Steve stared.  
  
"Holy sh—"  
  
"Shhh!" Dean clamped a hand over Steve’s mouth before reaching for the door handle, turning it quietly.  
  
They could immediately see what the cause of the noise was: a vertical saw was running and suspended above it, floating, a terrified Joshua who was being pushed slowly downwards onto it. Joshua turned his head and spotted Dean.  
  
"Dean!" He cried, wet tear tracks on his face.  
  
"Joshua! Stay still buddy. We’re gonna get you out of here." Dean spoke calmly and assuredly, but it was all for the kid’s benefit. They couldn’t exactly just shoot the spirit now, could they?  
  
"Danny!" Dean raised his voice as Sam slowly circled the room, trying to get closer to Joshua.  
  
"Danny! We know the truth now! We know what they did to you!"  
  
A pale figure of boy appeared in the corner of the room. He was short for his age and reminded Dean of another chubby twelve year old from many years ago.  
  
"It was their fault," he said.  
  
"I know," Dean replied.  
  
"They wouldn’t let me join in. Why wouldn’t you let me join in?" Danny turned, directing his question at Steve, who hovered behind Dean.  
  
"I—uh…"  
  
"It’s okay. Talk to him, tell him you’re sorry." Dean encouraged him to speak up, but put his hand out when Steve made to walk forward. He’d let the kid speak to Danny but he wasn’t putting the kid between himself and the spirit.  
  
"I’m sorry, Danny. We never meant for it to happen."  
  
"But it did! I died and all because you thought I wasn’t worthy to hang out with you."  
  
"We’re really sorry. You—you can hang out with us now. Join in, we’d—we’d like that." Steve’s voice was shaking as he spoke, trying anything to appease Danny.  
  
"You would?"  
  
"Sure."  
  
"You’re just saying that, what about the others?"  
  
"I’m sure they’d want to as well. I’ll tell everyone, Danny. I’ll tell everyone how brave you were and how we dared you to go in there. Everyone will wish that they’d had you hanging around with them."  
  
"You’d do that for me?"  
  
"Yeah,"  
  
"No one would ever do that for me before." Danny seemed confused but appeased. "Okay…okay." And then he was gone.  
  
The machine shut off and Sam lunged for Joshua, catching him just before he hit it.  
  
"Sam!" Dean shouted.  
  
"It’s okay, I got him. I got him."  
  
Dean sighed, and looked at the two terrified boys.  
  
"Come on, lets get you home."  
  


~~~~~~~~~~

  
  
Three days later, Sam and Dean were loading the car, finally leaving town.  
  
It was all quiet at the school with neither sight nor sound of Danny’s spirit. They were hoping that a combination of Steve’s words to Danny as well as a cleansing ritual they had performed two nights before at Danny’s grave had helped him move on.  
  
Just before they left, Steve and Joshua walked into the parking lot with Joshua holding a tin foil parcel in his hands. Sam was collecting the last of the bags from their room and stood at the window and watched as Dean spoke to the boys, smiling as Joshua handed over the parcel, which was clearly some kind of home made food.  
  
Sam walked outside to join them, overhearing the last part of the conversation.  
  
"Yeah, gotta get back to work and it turns out janitor work wasn’t for my brother."  
  
"Will you come back?" Joshua asked, optimism in his voice.  
  
"Maybe, who knows," _This is why I hate goodbyes_ "Take care of your mom, okay? And each other." Dean added looking at Steve too.  
  
"Bye, Dean. And thanks." Steve smiled.  
  
Joshua added, "Yeah, thanks for the help with my work, and for…y’know."  
  
"Yeah, I know." Dean smiled as the boys turned and headed out the parking lot towards the park.  
  
Sam joined Dean a moment later with the last bag.  
  
"You okay?"  
  
"I’m fine. Let’s hit the road, Sammy."  
  


~~~~~~~~~~

  
  
They were barely five minutes out of town when Sam broke the silence.  
  
"So, tutoring?"  
  
"Don’t start, Sammy."  
  
"Start what?"  
  
"With all the ‘why didn’t you try harder in school’ or ‘you could have gone to college too’. Just don’t. So I was good at some subjects in school, so what?"  
  
"So, I’m proud of my big brother."  
  
"That’s all?"  
  
"That’s all."  
  
"Huh," Dean shifted the car into gear.  
  
That was all.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written 2008. I hope it (mostly) stands the test of time. I'm in the process of relocating my Supernatural fic from LJ to here. Feedback is always welcomed, no matter how old!


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